Posts tagged New Hampshire
Poker Room Freeroll Recap – 02/11/2010
Feb 11th
I played poker again tonight in the Poker Room at the Best Western in Keene. My initial thought was that I should buy 4,000 chips for $20 because I wanted to at least have as many chips as those at the table who had already done that; about two thirds of the players at my table had. After thinking about it a bit I decided against it, because I would really like to take down one of these for free.
The cards weren’t coming at all for me at first, but after reading Chapter 4 and 5 of The Poker Tournament Formula by Arnold Snyder, I’ve become much more aware of how important position is at the table and how you can bet your trash cards and still make money based upon the way people in front of you respond to the bet. I should note that the book is for fast tournaments, which is exactly what the Poker Room tournament is. I successfully stole some blinds and bets, especially after identifying a particularly tight player who would raise preflop, but then check and allow me to bet to take the pot.
There were somewhere around 72 players in attendance, and after playing through the first hour I was sitting at 13.5K in chips. Returning from break, the woman to my left who had been buying a lot of pots was the big blind. A few other people were in the pot, and I raised 3X the blind with my AK off suit. She was the only caller. I was first to act and I checked the flop of 10-K-4. She went all in with 5100 and I quickly called, thinking she had K-something. I had her on a pair, but not pocket 10s.
It took me awhile to battle back from that blow, but then I got my chance when I flopped a straight. Fortunately there were some faces involved, so the people who were in it with their big hole cards stayed right in with me. One guy had a flush possibility, but fortunately it did not come. We got moved to a different table not too long after that where I met a ‘talkative’ guy named Jack, a foreigner named Akmed (spelling?), and a couple players who appeared to be younger than me. I took a shot on Akmed with KJ off suit. JJ looked good, but then I saw the ace came and thought I was done. I knew he had paired up. Somehow, I caught a queen on the river and made a straight. After additional playing, it was again time for break. I apologized to him at the break, and with a big smile he said that’s OK, it’s poker my friend.
When I returned, I noticed that I had been “chipped up.” I played some additional hands and then the next thing I knew there were only three tables left. Two new comers and one of them had TWO 10K chips and a big slew of other 1K chips. Wow! My $19K was starting to look like chump change compared to the other stacks I was looking at. with the blinds at 1/2K, I took my shot on Akmed. I had 9/5 off suit, and was only in the pot because I was the blind. When I saw a 9-J-2 flop, I thought 9’s were weak but stood a chance. I gave it a shot and he called. Crap, he has jacks. The next card that came was a heart for 3 hearts on the board. I was the first to act and should have gone all in, but instead bet 8K. he thought a bit and called. Finally, the last card came and it was of no danger to me. I went all in for another 6500 more.
Akmed thought and thought about his decision. Said numerous times “I can’t call he has me beat.” Unfortunately, he did call his pair of jacks even though he thought I had a flush. He Turned over his jack and I turned over my 9. I finished in 26th place, which I consider a terrific accomplishment. Obviously it would be nice to place in the money, but I played poker for 2 and a half hours and didn’t spend a dime. I was very entertained, learned a lot, and met some very interesting people including a guy I went to school with named Mike Davis.
- Lessons Learned:
*When trying to buy a pot against a guy with a bigger stack, push all in. All in has a much more threatening sound than “8,000.”
*Sometimes I do get lucky.
*Position is a very valuable tool, be aware of it.
Dodge Ball Vs. Staff Infection 10/05/2009
Oct 10th
On Monday October 5th, 2009 Target Practice played dodge ball at the Keene Recreational Center against Staff Infection. Unfortunately, only three members of their team showed up so they had to forfeit. We decided to still play out the game and have Nichole, one of our 5 players in attendance, play for the other team.
The game started off well, initially it was 0-1, then 1-1, then 2-1. We were thrilled! For the first time in 19 games we were the team ahead. Sadly though, that was soon erased as the other team went on to score 8 additional points to end the game at 2-9. There were some excellent catches made by our team, most notably one by Raj where he fell and caught the ball one handed. Nichole and I talked after the game and we think it might be best to just start catching instead of throwing.
Our next game is Sunday October 11th against Bunch Of Tools at 6:45PM.
Paddle Power 2005 Shirts – Grantham Goonies
Jun 27th
LOL. Call Tom for computer repair?
The front of the shirt, our team name for Paddle Power 2005.
I was going through some old CDs today and I found these pictures from Paddlepower 2005. These are the images I used for the T-shirt transfer. I get a real kick out of the fake sponsors, the middle initials, and the stars. Paddle Power is a 36 mile paddle down the Connecticut River to raise money for West Central Behavioral Health, with a focus on suicide prevention. It was a lot of fun in 2005 and I plan to do it again. Take a look at their website for more information about the event. In the video on the main page, you can see me paddling at 9:06.
Bad Dates Play at the Peterborough Players
Jun 17th
Last night, my grandmother and I went to “C&S night” at the Peterborough Players. We followed some directions and initially got lost. I paid for access to VZ Navigator for the day and plugged in our destination. The GPS on my phone, of course, gave us better results than the handwritten directions we had!
We arrived at about 7:45; the play was to start at 8. At the time we arrived, they hadn’t even started letting people into the playhouse. We arrived while a woman was explaining some things, and shortly thereafter we were allowed to enter. We were told the normal things like “no photography” and “please turn off your cell phones;” and since this was a dress rehearsal, the house manager (if you can call him that), explained that the set was completely finished (usually not the case for a dress rehearsal).
The play featured only one actress, a leggy brunette haired woman with blonde highlights. She was visually pleasing, and she was an exceptional actress! I was convinced only once that she had forgotten her line. Had she slipped up at any other point, she did a fantastic job hiding it. While her facial expressions, body language and overall appearance helped make the play more interesting, I did not find the play to be particularly good.
One of the things I disliked was that the actress was all by herself. While it allowed me to appreciate her exceptional acting even more, I felt that one or two more actors on the stage would have made it far more enjoyable. The entire play took place in her New York apartment, with her trying on various sexy shoes and telling a story the entire time. A few times, she even stripped down to her undergarments on stage to change. John Riley commented that this was to keep the men in the audience interested.
That’s essentially what the ENTIRE play consisted of, a story. The story of the woman’s life was interesting enough, but I just found the play a bit lacking. The women in the audience seemed to thoroughly enjoy the play. From the male perspective, John Riley said it perefectly: “You know how there are chick flicks? That was a chick play.” Had I not been with my grandmother, I would still have found the play entertaining enough to stay for the whole thing; several people, however, left at intermission.
Nashua and Manchester With Holly – 1/11/2009
Jan 12th
After a riveting game night and some alcohol on Saturday which lasted into 2AM Sunday morning, Holly and I woke at just after 7AM. The plan was to go to Church for the 10AM service; we thought that would give us plenty of time. We ended up leaving the house at 8 and getting some Dunkin’ Donuts. As we were nearing Peterborough, I farted and thought I crapped my pants so we stopped at the new CVS so I could use the bathroom. Thankfully it was a false alarm! PHEW!
Needless to say, we didn’t end up making it to Manchester for the 10AM service. Holly wasn’t interested in waiting for the 11:30 service, so we proceeded to a Christmas Tree Shop and Babies R Us. Holly had to do some shopping for a coworker’s baby shower and we wanted to poke around at the Christmas Tree Shop. Boy am I glad I did! I found an INCREDIBLY sweet tin Pig for $1. It is basically a small tin bucket, which sits in a wire frame that looks like a pig. Holly named her Penelope. If I get really ambitious I may take a photo of her so she can strut her pig stuff.
After that, we drove around Nashua for awhile dumpster diving. I wasn’t really feeling it to begin with, and we didn’t find a thing and got bored of it quickly. Then, driving along Main Street in Nashua, we approached FunWorld. As you can see from their stellar website, it was a “THRILLING” place. Holly and I got our photo sketched in a photo booth, played a string on their CapCom bowling lanes, and proceeded to level two. Several racing games were here, along with some fighting and shooting games.
On the third floor, they had 2 DDR machines, 4 pinball machines, and some band type games. We tried playing the Monopoly pinball machine, but that had a bad screen which is never any fun. We proceeded to play DDR, which was an awesome time (even though Holly tuckered out long before I! 
), and I played the Austin Powers pinball machine. The left flipper was COMPLETELY useless as it wasn’t on the arm properly, but pointed a bit downward. Unfortunately I didn’t notice before I donated my two tokens to FunWorld! We then went downstairs to play some racing games. We tried one and found out they weren’t liked together and we couldn’t race against each other. Hmmm. We switched to another that had speakers in the seat which were WAY TOO LOUD. My steering wheel was only working intermittently, and with that we decided we had had enough of FunWorld. We proceeded to leave, and on the way out we noticed a Clucking Chicken Egg Laying Machine. We put a token in it, and with a cackling speaker’s series of chicken cluck sounds, we received an egg. We got a MUCH bigger prize than we ever thought possible from such a game.
After we left FunWorld, we went to Bob’s Discount Furniture. As soon as we entered, we were greeted by a salesperson named Jack who found it necessary to introduce himself, shake our hands, and ask our names. Talk about uncomfortable! We proceeded around the store looking at sofas, love seats, recliners, etc. Jack the salesman was never far behind. Every now and then, he would barrel into our investigation of a given piece of furniture and tell us this or that about it. Finally, Holly stated while we were in “The Pit” that we were just looking and that we weren’t there to buy anything. He said okay, gave us his business card, and stated that he would appreciate if we would ask for him when we were ready to buy. We thought that would get him to leave us alone, but to our surprise it didn’t! We proceeded to the sleepy area where the beds were, and he followed us. He received a page over the intercom and TOLD us that he had to take his page but he would be RIGHT back. Unfortunately for us, there was a phone right around the corner!
We finally decided to exit after looking at bedroom sets. Ruthless Jack found it entirely necessary to follow us out of the store. He followed us down the stairs, along the fish pond in the center of the store, and toward the entrance. He stopped us, shook my hand again, and said “We make our money on commission. Don’t forget to ask for me next time you come in, my wife would really appreciate it!” He chuckled and wished us well. I couldn’t BELIEVE IT!! What salesperson in America other than Jack of Bob’s Discount Furniture says that!?
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